In 1900, the Westbrook Reformatory for Boys, an institution holding both young people convicted of criminal offences and those deemed to be neglected children, was established in a farming region in Queensland, Australia. The institution would remain in the same location until 1994. By then, it had been rebranded as a Youth Detention Centre,…

Contributing to the understanding of Steiner education as a localised practice, this paper traces the creation of two "second generation" Steiner schools in 1980s Victoria. A period of expansion for Steiner education in Australia, the 1980s saw the number of Steiner schools increase from 5 to 31. These schools were started mainly by…

This study investigates the "educational borrowing" of Pestalozzi's and Fellenberg's reforms by James Bonwick, an Australian schoolmaster and inspector in the 1840s and 1850s. The article initially examines Pestalozzi's and Fellenberg's teaching methods and philosophies. Adopting a biographical approach, it then explores the…

This article considers the theoretical argument of anthropologist Tim Ingold, that the denial and subsequent encasement of bare feet in footwear was a critical characteristic of the development of modern societies, in exploring three aspects of feet, footwork, and footwear in the history of the modern school. First, the material conditions of feet…

In "Radical Education and the Common School" (2011), Michael Field and Peter Moss argue for a radical alternative to the failed and dysfunctional contemporary discourse about education and the school with its focus on markets, competition, instrumentality, standardisation, and managerialism. They argue that it is necessary, if we are to…

This article examines cultural representations of the mid-twentieth century mother of schoolchildren in a mass-circulation Australian women's magazine, arguing that schools and schooling have been under-acknowledged in the historiography of mothering, despite their importance in shaping modern childhood and family life. Framing the…

The history of universities in the twentieth century is, at least from the perspective of growth, a massive success. Australian higher education is no exception. Prior to the Second World War, Australia had six universities and approximately 10,500 students. Now there are in excess of one million students attending 39 institutions. In each phase…

Fred Clarke (1880-1952) was a key figure in the internationalisation of educational studies and research in the first half of the twentieth century. Clarke aimed to heighten the ideals and develop the practices of educational studies and research through promoting mutual influences in different countries around the world. He envisaged the…

Over the past two decades there has been a growing interest in the exploration of "transnational history". This work has focused in general on understanding the "movement, ebb and circulation" of ideas across borders and in particular on the introduction, transmission, reception and appropriation of ideas through the process of…